The first time I ran a mission without Genma, or someone he'd expressly given permission to take me on one, was because I'd been requested by a jounin. It was the only way such a thing was possible, and I found it extremely uncomfortable to be leaving without his say-so. But he was on a mission of his own and wouldn't be back until after this mission was over, and it was a B-rank. The water bill was due, and I really needed the money. Not to mention paying for food, and seal paper. God do I run through seal paper.

So I accepted. It turns out the jounin in question was a recently promoted Sonada Nonami. I raised an eyebrow in silence when I saw her standing at the gate with one other person and she just laughed.

"I know, I know. Took me a while to finally go for the exam, but here we are. Glad you could make it, figured that sensei of yours might object."

I shifted my weight slightly, enough to let her know I was uncomfortable with that particular subject without having to voice it.

"He's...on a mission."

"Ah, your decision then, interesting. Anyway, this is Mitarashi Anko. I hope you get along."

I blinked up at the other purple haired woman present before frowning. It was the wrong move, with how Anko tensed, likely expecting some reference to Orochimaru, no doubt. Instead I made a desolate noise, faking worry,

"Ahhh, how come everyone but me has awesome purple hair, I mean honestly."

Anko grinned, snickering,

"I'm sure we can do something about that."

Nonami slapped the both of us across the back of the head simultaneously,

"Focus you two, we've got shit to retrieve. Anko here is a front-liner, I'm a weapons specialist, and Asuka-chan is a damn fine sensor with some interesting fuinjutsu up her sleeve. Now that we're acquainted let's go. I'll give you full parameters when we're five minutes out."

I had to undo my weight seals almost automatically to keep up with the two women, and was sweating bullets by the time we stopped to rest. The mission was simple enough. A storm had intercepted a message hawk and we needed to pick it up before anyone else did. Nonami's actual part in this mission was her familiarity with the hawks. It was her first lead as jounin, and she was the only one of us who would know if the hawk or message had been tampered with already.

While we were resting she brought out a map and poked a finger at a particular space several miles west of where we were.

"This area is where the storm hit." Her finger drew a straight line from Konoha to the border, crossing over the point she'd already indicated. "This is the path the bird was taking. We'll have to start from here, just in case the wind got to it before it even reached the main event. Asuka here will be keeping a feel out for it."

Anko huffed,

"No offense to the midget, but wouldn't an Inuzuka be better for this?"

Nonami shook her head,

"The storm would have gotten rid of the scent, and the chakra tags on their legs are meant for authentication, they're the wrong kind to be tracked accurately with kikachu or a Byakugan. Sharingan would have been next to useless so no sense rousing Hatake out of bed. No, I've seen this girl tell a fox apart from a turtle at a distance of two miles."

I nodded,

"I'm familiar with the feel of the messenger hawks chakra tags as well, so that should expedite things."

Anko's face clearly said she'd believe it when she saw it.

It took us three hours to find the bird and secure it's message, we were back in the village before the sun went down. The opposition we were expecting never arrived, and I exited the tower with the two purple haired women slightly behind me.

"That was the easiest money I've made in my life, pleasure working with you."

I cheerfully started to walk home only to be caught by the shoulder by Anko, grinning broadly.

"Where do you think you're going? We still have some purple to apply!"

The next day the purple hair, the exact same shade as Mitarashi's, attracted a few funny looks but it wasn't uncommon for shinobi to color their hair, it tended to confuse the shit out of foreign analysts and make them believe there were several individuals with the same capabilities. If there's one thing ninja's love it's a mindfuck. Genma still wasn't back yet, so I entered the mission room with hopes of securing at least a D-rank mission, even though the rest period after a B or A-rank was for at least the duration of the mission itself. If I found a Chuunin who hadn't seen me yesterday it might work, it was common practice after all. I was searching through the D-rank tags on the wall for something I could stomach doing on my own when I felt a familiar chakra presence behind me and stepped neatly out of the way of the hand coming down to steal my beanie.

"Nice to see you too, Mitarashi-san."

"Now don't be like that, squirt. We're sisters in purple now, calling me by my name won't hurt you."

I smiled, not taking my eyes off the tags, finally pulling one off the rack for a grocery shopping job.

"In that case it's nice to see you, Anko-san. If you'll excuse me I have-"

"A d-rank? Why the fuck would you be running D-ranks?"

While I appreciated the fact that she didn't curb her language and was therefore less likely to admonish me for mine I still didn't appreciate her attempting to steal my hat. I easily sidestepped her next swipe for my beanie.

"Because I need to pay rent?"

She finally ceased her swiping, moving around to stand in front of me with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face.

"So you run d-ranks? That's not going to get you anywhere fast."

"...Anko-san, you are aware that I'm a genin, right?"

"...Ahhaha….no. Really?"

"Yes, really. I graduated with the last class, actually."

Her startled expression really gave me the warm and fuzzies, though they disappeared when she stepped in my way once again.

"Wait wait wait wait, I can't let anyone I've been seen running a mission with be caught doing d-ranks. Come on, I'm sure there's something here for us."

She snatched a random B-rank off the wall pushed me ahead of her to a mission desk. I pushed down the feeling of foreboding, I mean, it would certainly straighten out my financial situation for the next few weeks at least. I could get so much seal work done if I didn't have to run d-ranks for a few days...surely just one more mission with Anko couldn't hurt?

Apparently it can hurt a lot. Not so much physically, though being tossed against a tree by a pissed off Kumo-nin is painful, but rather it snowballed from there. I underestimated how many friendly people Anko had in her life, because I assumed Nonami would be the norm. I'd never seen Sonada Nonami in the show, not even a mention so far as I could remember, and yet she and Anko got along decently. But Nonami was the exception that proved the rule, going so far as to have a very cryptic conversation with me that I'm pretty sure was her feeling out if I was going to up and be a bitch, following the lead of others. Finally I got sick of it, on the third day of cryptic questions I pulled Nonami into a deserted hallway of the tower, fixing her with a blank stare.

"Nonami-san, are you aware that one of my two best friends goes by the name of Uzumaki Naruto?" I waited for realization to follow the name before I rolled my eyes. "I practically live with him. I do the grocery shopping because civilians are such butthurt bitches about him. I'm the last person to be affected by the opinions of others."

That put a stop to the weirdness, but it did mean I spent a good bit more time around both women. Jounin and Anbu are the only ones outside of wartime who might be called on to do missions back to back, but I did it the first time on accident, forgetting the rule completely because I was simply going wherever Anko lead me. The very last time happened when leaving the tower, Anko having already run off to Ibiki with an interesting bit of information we'd gathered. It wasn't my fault Moto-san was there, or that he recognized me.

"Asuka-chan!"

I froze, clutching my half finished report in one hand and raised an eyebrow at the old man.

"Moto-san. I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon."

He shrugged, beaming at me,

"Ah, there was an unexpected issue involving one of my investments in Konoha. It would seem that none of my prefered escorts are available, save yourself of course."

I could tell the chuunin in front of him was flagging, having been browbeaten for information about Gai, Ebisu, and Genma for what was probably hours. Moto had worked with T&I in his day, after all. The fucking traitor immediately stamped the mission and tossed the scroll my way.

"The missions yours! Take it...Asuka, was it? Surname?"

"None."

I flipped open the scroll, Moto was going to the exact same destination as before. I sighed, rolling the scroll back up and using the nearest wall as a flat surface to scribble out the rest of the report. I'd never been more grateful for all the practice I'd done to be able to write seals during a fight. The report wasn't pretty or calligraphy like the seals would have been, but there was a shit ton more written there. Moto was still talking to someone on the other end of the room so I took the time to shove the horrible excuse of a report at the chuunin who had saddled me with the old man.

"Here, you can have the honor of filing that."

He didn't even have the decency to look guilty.

"That old man is a terror."

"I know, he's ex-T&I, you got manipulated into sending a rookie Genin alone on a C-rank escort mission. Have fun with that paperwork."

The blood fled from his face and he automatically began flailing for the forms he needed. I had no sympathy for him. It was out of my hands when he stamped it, it was a mission assigned to me directly, failure to complete it could get me court-martialed. Warning him meant he could bury it in bureaucracy and save his own ass, but I didn't want attention called to it either, it's not like I wanted someone to put a stop to my only decent source of income. All the jounin I'd run missions with, especially Anko, were well aware my sensei didn't have a clue what was going on, and none of them wanted to alert mama bear. They carefully avoided me when I was training with him, though Anko had a habit of happening to be nearby when I was on the way home, and I usually ended up at a dango establishment. Dango was the food of god, and no one could convince either of us otherwise.

Moto-san finally wrapped up whatever the hell he was doing, and I couldn't help but wish that Anko had stayed around. It wouldn't have been hard to convince her to go with me on this one, she really was sort of a friend by this point. I wasn't worried about Moto-san getting hurt, if worst came to worst he could rediscover his old shinobi talents and nope his ass out of whatever situation got me killed. Because the only way he'd have to defend himself is if I ended up dead.

The possibility of me dying on a mission had never really occurred to me, not when there were capable jounin or chuunin around. I hadn't realized how much their very presence had been a security blanket until that point. I kept a feel out, the invisible net as wide as possible, changing our route around to avoid any possible brush with human life. By the time we stopped for the night I was certain there was no one anywhere near us. I still didn't sleep that night. It wasn't possible, with no one else there to take a turn at watch.

I crunched caffeine and soldier pills, circulating chakra almost constantly to keep my muscles loose despite sitting perfectly still in my tree perch. Every now and then I would cycle through the seals for a jutsu, I wouldn't release it, but it was good practice. When Moto woke up I exited the tree, and we picked up polite conversation once again. He was excited to hear that some of my seals had found their way to T&I, and before we parted ways he told me he expected great things from me. No pressure or anything.

Regardless of giving them seals I didn't want anything to do with Torture and Interrogation. The only reason I'd given more seals to them than to Research and Development was because Genma wanted to rub it in Ibiki's face. Maybe I should have given them to Genma to do as he pleased. Because putting myself in front of T&I both with the seals and through Anko suddenly made me incredibly wary when Moto-san was the one expressing interest. I couldn't shake the feeling, so I ran full tilt back to Konoha, only thirty minutes away from the village I was stopped by a presence at the edge of my awareness.

I hesitated for half a second, looking in the direction of the village before a flare of unfamiliar chakra went off, entirely too near the vaguely familiar one. I groaned, changing my direction slightly and angling towards the fight. Just out of sight I paused, removing the beanie and shoving it into my equipment pouch. I pulled my hair up out of the way into a ponytail and secured the Konoha headband around my forehead, easily in view. I didn't want the friendly shinobi down there to get an unexpected surprise and for both parties to mistake me for enemy reinforcements, and attack.

I drew my chakra down close to my core, in the same manner that scared the shit out of Genma every time I utilized it in training, and approached as silently as possible. Given that I was being trained by someone very much still in Anbu the two preoccupied nin didn't notice my approach. It was a Hyuuga, main branch judging by the blank forehead, though their byakugan wasn't activated. A Hyuuga out of the village alone, they had to be a jounin. It explained why they felt vaguely familiar, the dormant Byakugan would be something I'd felt coming from Neji. I couldn't put the situation together without more information, but what I could see wasn't good. The shinobi facing off against the Hyuuga wasn't wearing a headband, in fact they wore a black mask with white lines radiating outwards from the eyes.

Let's be honest though, they were probably from Kumo. There was some sort of black sludge hanging off both of the Hyuuga's arms, and even from this distance I could tell it was sucking his chakra, likely the reason the Byakugan wasn't activated, compounded with the fact he couldn't use gentle fist with his hands out of commission like that. I needed a plan, and I needed one now. I wouldn't be able to stay out of sight for long, not with Kumo Anbu in the mix. But I shouldn't need that long. I'd tested my new technique already against Naruto and his one man army, with Genma thrown into the mix for good measure...but now wasn't the best time. The element of surprise was completely on my side here, at the very least we should be able to cut and run, no need for the dramatics of what I'd originally turned my mind to.

So I launched myself out of the tree and threw a seal directly at the Anbu, deep black, unnatural smoke rising and obstructing his view, dulling his senses while it was at it. The Hyuuga automatically faced me and I flared my chakra in the konoha standard code that basically meant 'I'm here to help', and the tension eased very slightly in his shoulders. I jerked a thumb back to Konoha, even as I landed on the ground near him, hands flowing immediately into the standard code for 'retreat'.

It didn't take more than two seconds for the exchange and he was off, not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I hadn't slept in two days, maybe three? I'd chomped enough chakra pills that I was at half capacity at this point, and I winced as I threw out a shadow clone, breath coming in gasps at it solidified. I really shouldn't be using the technique, but it was the only thing I could think of, the clone henging into the Hyuuga, complete with the goop on it's arms, my clones chakra control techniques being similar enough to mine that the goo gave off the same feel, or close enough. I let my hold on the seal slip and the smoke cleared out, the anbu turning to myself and my clone as we took off into the trees.

Konoha nin have the advantage in any forest area, but in the Hashirama trees we're damn uncatchable. I didn't have the chakra for a single jutsu, even my favored katon ones, but I did have seals that would barely take a spark to activate. I twisted out of sight, keeping the Hyuuga-clone close to me, and slightly ahead, and in the split second I was out of the Anbu's line of sight I tossed four Kunai, setting the charges.

When the Anbu got close they flared to life, not explosive tags, but a barrier seal. It was a wall, and I wasn't expecting the guy to actually run into it, but that smack was unmistakable. Are barrier seals really so uncommon it never even occurs to anyone to be wary of them? I found that hard to believe what with how useful they were. I expected the Anbu to go around the barrier quickly, not speed up as if to beat out an explosion and subsequently ram the wall with his face. Amusing as it was if he hadn't been worn down from the Hyuuga already I didn't think I would have made it even this far. I could only hope that the Hyuuga made it to the gates and sent someone to help me, or that this guy gave the fuck up the closer he got to the village.

My luck finally ran out, and the Anbu put on speed, springboarding off the side of a trunk and then a limb, twisting around so that he was in front of me, sliding a kunai through the Hyuuga's ribs. After a second of dramatic choking on blood the clone grinned, a weird as hell expression on a Hyuuga, and the clone popped. I wasted no time, feeling the surge of anger in the Anbu's chakra, tossing out more kunai. Some went for the Anbu, who deflected them easily, the rest skittered across the limbs. He took a step forward and deflected one aimed for his left eye and finally enough seals lined up. I flared the barrier into place and ran before he could even comprehend what I'd done.

There was no way that barrier could hold Anbu for very long. It had taken a determined Kakashi barely a minute and twenty seconds to brute force his way to freedom, so I rounded this one's lifespan up to a minute and thirty five at most. I'd never run faster in my life, heart pounding, vision blurring at the edges from adrenaline, the fear finally catching up to me. I'd seen the Hyuuga's chin dipping down to his jounin vest, where the suicide pills were kept. No doubt main branch Hyuuga had a special kind that would make their eyes useless after death. His particular death wouldn't have affected the story in any way. Kumo wouldn't have gotten the eyes, no secrets would be lost. But keeping to 'the plan' was no way to live. This place was home, and this was my life, being a shinobi of Konoha was my life's purpose, and if I was going to do it then I was going to do it right. Even if I died here and now Naruto would save the world eventually. I wasn't actually necessary here. So every mark I could make of my own in history was a win.

I tried to convince myself of that as I used every trick Genma had ever taught me about avoiding pursuit, as well as the ones I'd learned in the field with Anko. I had no doubt that if I hadn't been running the level of missions I had been, and as many of them, that I would have been in no shape to even so much as scrape by like I was. As they say, practice makes perfect. I felt the seals shatter through the chakra connection I had with them and winced, a minute and forty-five seconds. Longer than I'd thought, but still not enough for comfort. It would take him a few more seconds, maybe minutes if I was lucky, to pick up my trail again, and who knew how fast he'd be after me once he did. There was no reason to chase me now that he knew the Hyuuga was gone, none other than to murder the shit out of me for being an annoyance.

I cast out my senses for Konoha shinobi anywhere at all, leaving or returning from a mission, even a patrol, and noted that the Anbu hadn't moved. He was likely looking for the seals for the barrier. After five full minutes he moved, and my knees went weak when it was in the complete opposite direction of me. I stopped for fifteen seconds to get my breathing under control and choke back tears. I couldn't tell if they were from relief at being alive, delayed from fear, or maybe even 'what the hell was I thinking' sort of tears.

I resumed running and didn't slow my pace, instead keeping the same one, for all I knew the Anbu was a really good sensor himself and had sent a clone back and was sneaking up on me with the best chakra suppression technique the world had ever seen. I arrived at the gate to the sight of a team amassing, no doubt to go after the Anbu running around near our village. I didn't bother to slow down as courtesy would usually dictate, instead leaping from the last branch and sliding a bit from my uncontrolled landing. I didn't realize how hard I was breathing until I was laying on the ground and staring up at Anko.

I grinned at her,

"Heeeey, guess who pissed off some foreign Anbu?"

A medic rushed forwards, bright green hair the second thing I noticed after the intense scowl.

"What the hell were you thinking, kid? How many chakra pills did you even take?!"

"...admittedly a lot."

He barked out his next question, "Exact number!"

It was more of an order and I responded on instinct,

"One three days ago, two more last night, and one about four hours ago."

I could practically see the steam coming out of his ears, but he was pushed aside to make room for Morino Ibiki himself.

"Where's the Anbu?"

I didn't bother sitting up, he'd have told me to if it bothered him I was lying down in the dirt. He'd even crouched down for me, how sweet.

"Third quadrant to the West, last I saw. Caught him in a barrier for nearly two minutes, and by that point he gave up following, seeing as he'd just realized the Hyuuga with me was a clone. It seemed he decided that he'd rather return to his village than risk taking time to murder the shit out of me for being a nuisance."

There was some movement and then a rush of air as some left to follow the guy and make sure he actually left Fire Country, that or to actually haul him back here. I was trying to catch my breath still when Anko fell to her knees beside me and pulled me up into a sitting position by my shoulders, letting me lean against her as the medic dragged a glowing hand across me. Ibiki decided to get a report right then and there.

"What were you doing outside of the village?"

"I was returning from a C-rank mission when I noticed a serious confrontation between a Konoha nin and a foreign chakra signature. Upon investigation the Konoha nin was leaning toward a last resort, so I created a distraction and became bait."

"What was the mission? Where's the rest of your team?"

"Escort mission. Chuunin Uyehara assigned it to me alone upon request from Moto-san."

I didn't even need to provide a full name for that old ass, understanding dawned on the interrogation specialist almost immediately. He opened his mouth to ask another question and surprisingly stopped when the medic held up a hand.

"I'm going to check her into the hospital. You can question her to your heart's content whenever she wakes up."

~TimeLordOfPie