Warning: Anko not the sexually deviant harassing character shown in fanon. Closer to canon, so that may appear a bit OOC. And thanks to all the reviewers! I couldn't reply due to being in a village, not hidden anywhere...onto the chapter!

Oh and some painful stuff might be there next.

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Chapter 17: It's Not My Fault I'm Popular!

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"Although this mirror can show a reflection, it cannot show you the truth." ~Haibara Ai.

Mitarashi Anko could tell that to antagonize would not work on Uchiha Sasuke. He seemed ready for it, expecting it even. A preconceived notion in regards to her based only on knowing her from the chunin exams.

Genin were not so guarded against her, especially male genin when she played nice.

Except Uchiha Sasuke, trying to nonchalantly hide how much he wanted to get away from her. Like he had something to hide. Anko's instincts were going off in that regard, the more she observed him.

But Kakashi had not asked her to investigate Sasuke, but use her as psychology knowledge to help his 'cute little duckling' back in the game.

Not that he wasn't already in it. The genin was doing chakra control exercises that would give medic-nin second thoughts, trying to hold his whole body weight upright in a body of water. It was inventive. And something medic-nin could get behind once they stopped daring each other to hand from tree branches by using only one finger in their spare time.

"So, what do you do for fun?" She walked with practiced nonchalance, hands in the pockets of her coat.

"I train. And study. What about you?" The boy turned to her and she made eye-contact. He instantly looked elsewhere.

"I like tea ceremonies." Anko shrugged. "Want to try it some time?"

"Are you sure you're not supposed to be busy?"

"Where do you think I work?" Anko asked outright. The kid was upright, and did not have any known anger triggers and liked to help others. Which meant that unless she offended his sense of 'justice', he wouldn't lose his temper. Honesty worked better with these types once you got them in a conversation.

"How would I know? You're a jounin without a team." The Uchiha shot back.

A plausible evasion. "Not answering my question kiddo. Take a guess."

"Maa, if you insist," Cheeky, wasn't he? "ANBU, or Academy teacher."

Oh. To everyone else, she was too loud and brash and to be in ANBU. No one made that conclusion from just one meeting with her. She was a part-time interrogator at Intelligence, often accompanied by ANBU on missions. After her...that bastard's betrayal, the highest rank she could get was Special Jounin, and was posted as an Academy teacher to keep her in plain view and in the village.

Except the Sandaime – the departed Sandaime, had come through for her, rationalizing his decision to give her a mask for on-and-off missions that had no business being recorded at all in scrolls. Essentially, an agent with plausible deniability. All the missions she went on at the old man's word, she technically had no clearance for. But at least she didn't feel useless.

Now, how did he deduce that?

"The second one is correct! So, what made you think so?"

"I don't see you around the village much, and if you have enough spare time to randomly hang out with a genin, you can only be an academy teacher."

"How much do you even hang around the village? and the ANBU part?" She tilted her head.

"I don't see you around the village much," He parroted. And then secretly took a longer breath. "And your chakra is like theirs."

"I didn't know you were a sensor." Anko wondered out loud. She'd done her homework, consulting the academy records before coming to meet Kakashi's brat.

"Not a natural one."

Interesting, to say the least. Kakashi, what have you been doing with this kid?

They had reached her favorite dango stand. This time, she went inside rather than taking a bench set outside the shop. The building had private rooms with adequate seals, and Anko told the girl behind the counter to send her usual order.

"What will you have?" Anko turned to ask the genin. Clan child, didn't even bother to mention he had injuries that had to be taken care of. Or was it Kakashi's influence? He was shifting uneasily, favoring his right leg.

"Just green tea. With lemons." The girl behind the counter smiled a tad too brightly at the pretty boy, causing Anko to snap her fingers. The pretty-boy just smiled back awkwardly, before excusing himself to use the restroom without asking any of the employees where it was. A minute later he walked out, more steady and face clean.

"You've been here before?" Anko asked the genin then, leading him a room meant for couples on purpose in the back of the shop. Some of those rooms opened out to a view of a small garden, with an artificial pond surrounded by smooth round stones.

"By myself, but not till here." He was warily eyeing how small the room was, a table with just two seating cushions and a vase resting on the window-still. For a moment it looked like he was trying to read what message the white flowers held.

Gardenias. The boy gave up trying to figure out their meaning and Anko openly snickered.

"What?" He huffed, sitting down as far as he could, his back touching the wall. Anko plopped down herself, leaning back with her forearm resting on her knee.

"Those are gardenias. They symbolize a crush, even secret love." She grinned wide, but the Uchiha merely rolled his eyes. "Interesting as that is though, I just think the owner just likes how they look."

"I see." The kid relaxed a bit. "Had me worried there for a second. I'm half your age, probably."

"What was that?" A kunai had suddenly found its way into her hands.

"Nothing!" He raised his hand in placation, but she could feel the way his chakra actually flared. Kid was ready to bolt at the sign of a joke. She sighed, that was almost civilian-like.

"Sasuke – is it okay if I call you Sasuke? Of course it is- what do you think is your greatest weakness as a ninja?"

"Why would a ninja tell someone else their greatest weakness?" He eyed her neutrally. But Anko had been in the game much longer than him, the way his sleeve was wrinkling a bit at the elbow gave away how he fidgeted.

"Well," She cupped her chin thoughtfully. "You're good enough to land a hit on me, even going as far as to push me a little. But do you know what I noticed?"

"Wait, you didn't let me land a hit on you?" Sasuke looked at her, eyes wide.

Anko scowled. "Why the fuck would I? I don't go easy on anyone."

"Oh. Sorry. I was just...surprised, that I overestimated you." He smirked.

Wow. Confidence issues with the one the cockier students recorded in the academy. Was it due meeting up with his brother again? But then, Kakashi had told her about that reckless encounter. The boy didn't freeze, didn't hesitate the way one would in front of a person that caused them great trauma.

"Anyway, like I was saying, you don't have any killing intent at all. I'm not saying you couldn't have killed me with that Fireball jutsu back there, but it would not have been intentional." Perhaps a factor in why his curse seal didn't act up much at all.

"Aren't you a jounin?" Sasuke looked like he would really like to bang his head against a wall.

"I know! Imagine how the people you killed-" a visible flinch, "would feel if they realized you killed them by accident."

"The invasion was different." He was spoke fast, slightly panicked. "They were killing other people! I had to stop them! It wasn't an accident." The last sentence was spoken bitterly, full of loathing.

"And you did the right thing." Anko said, gently almost. "It's a fucked up world with fucked up people, and we do what we gotta do. The Suna and Sound nin which came and killed Konoha's people, I hate what they did, but I understand why they did it." After all, that snake was a very convincing bastard. "You didn't want to kill them, they didn't want to get killed, but it just happened."

"I... but if we can understand, why can't we..." He trailed off, his eyes were elsewhere.

Belatedly Anko realized something. "Were these your first kills?"

Sasuke snapped back to reality, his face smoothing over. "Yes." His tone was neutral, hiding everything and anything. "I talked to Kakashi-sensei about it. You don't have to worry."

Anko's eye twitched. Whenever the kid tried to lie to her, he levelled his breathing to give no tells. Which was remarkable, but that forced meditation was a tell in of itself.

"Like hell, kiddo. I know Kakashi. You'd have pretended everything was alright, and he'd have said his piece and then walked away, suppressing everything you feel."

"What do you know about me?" He growled. And that was the question, wasn't it? And his first hint of anger. Anko mentally checked his identity on the list of things that made him tick.

"You go through the shit I've been through Sasuke, and you get to know all sorts of things." There was a knock before the rice-paper door slide open, interrupting them. The Uchiha watched as ten trays of dango were placed in front them, along with two cups, his with sliced lemons on the coaster.

The genin thanked the waitress, before eyeing the ridiculous amount of dumplings. "You'll get fat someday. I can see it."

He got a senbon through the lemon he was squeezing into his tea for that, but didn't react. He had considered it worth it. Maybe there was a sense of humor in him after all.

"Anyway, like I was saying, suppressing emotions, bad shit. You'll snap, or end of like your mess of a sensei."

"Our sensei, our problem."

His team. Another check. She cleaned an entire stick of dango in one go, her cheeks puffed as she chewed.

"I'm just saying, I know I'm pulling this friend shit on you 'cause I'm bored but honestly, talk to someone, bawl your eyes, do something cathartic. There's no shame in it, Sasuke."

This gave him pause. Anko could see it, his lowering his walls just a tiny bit. "Do you cry?"

"Of course. I just don't let people see it. I have a reputation to maintain." She scoffed.

"Can I ask you something? I know, I know," He gave her an annoyed look as she was about to answer over a mouthful of dango. "You don't have to answer it. Who was your sensei?"

The woman swallowed, took a sip of her tea slowly. The boy in front of her waited calmly, as she took another long sip.

"Orochimaru." Anko said at last, closing her eyes and trying not to think of her regrets, anguish and any memories of that man. And the genin in front of her, upon finding out that she had been trained by a traitor to the Leaf, one of its greatest enemies and killer of the Sandaime was...not much surprised. "It was long ago... but you knew that, didn't you?

"Just confirming. Your taijutsu seemed familiar."

"Well, color me surprised. You actually fought with the guy?"

"In a way." He sipped his tea lightly, thinking. "Do you know what a Cursed Seal of Heaven is?"

Anko would have choked on a dango had she not had her tea handy to gulp it down. First this guy was shut tighter than twenty years old virgin girl on the first night of her arranged marriage she'd had no say in, and now he was asking about something as classified as that?

But well...he had a right to know about it.

"You mean this?" She pulled her collar sideways, revealing the three commas on the back of her neck, surrounded by the Evil Sealing Method.

"What does it do, besides chakra corruption?" Sasuke rested his chin on his knuckles, and Anko realized it was the only time she had seen his hands when he hadn't reached for his tea. He was quite a careful individual.

"Corruption, you can think of it like that. The tomoe are too dense to make out the actual symbols, but it enhances everything except natural reserves; speed, strength, control, you name it. The more it's used, the more the subject becomes reliant on it." She spoke with clinical detachment, as if reading from a report. "The recovery of chakra pathways isn't complete once the seal deactivates from the system. Once the system is weakened, naturally developed strength begins to fade and the subject is forced to use the seal more and more in an endless cycle to perform at and above the level they used to before they got the seal. Over time it changes their personality, causing them to become more aggressive, more sadistic."

Anko paused to re-fill her tea and took a long sip. The boy watched in mute fascination, rubbing his own neck. "The only way to recover is to completely stop using the seal, since it's designed to make the user reliant on it. The Evil Sealing Method only restricts the activation of the seal, which is triggered by killing intent." She held her thumb and index finger closed. "Even this little will do, talking from experience. So either you've never channeled killing intent, or just have monstrous control over yourself, which you don't."

Uchiha Sasuke raked a hand through his hair. "I see. Thank you. Sorry for making you talk about. You looked uncomfortable."

"Not a problem, Sasuke. We're friends in the same boat, aren't we?" She gave a small smile, pointing with her chin towards his neck. He removed her suspicions and pulled down his collar to reveal his own curse mark, although it seemed a bit lighter than hers...had the bastard made any changes to it?

Oh well, I finally established some rapport. Anko thought. I'll ask him about it next time.

She tapped a seal underneath the table to call for the bill. Looking at all the empty trays, the special jounin smirked. "Say, Sasuke, want to know a secret?" She asked cheerfully. A tad too cheerfully judging by how guarded the genin became, but he was Kakashi's brat. He could handle this.

"What is it?"

"This shop lets you open a tab to pay for dango. You can pay for it installments." The boy stiffened and she gave a feral grin. The door opened, a blue kimono clad girl with their bill in hand a large tray to gather the utensils.

"A-About that, can't you pay at least half?" Sasuke reasoned nervously, eyeing the amount of empty trays.

"Aw shucks, no can do. Well, it was nice meeting you. See y-"

"Thank you." The boy grinned back, the most expressive she had seen him. Something was off. Her instincts were blaring.

"Thanks for what?"

"For proof that you were actually going to ditch me with the bill." Uchiha Sasuke winked, and then with a puff of smoke, vanished.

Anko's eyes went wide. A shadow clone.

"Motherfu-"

I sneezed as my clone dispelled, channeling the memories back to me. I muffled my mouth with a hand to not snicker out loud in the library. Across from me, Sakura, studying a scroll on medicine per my suggestion, raised a brow.

"What's up?" She suppressed a yawn. With everything going on, she had kept up her training, sometimes alongside me.

"I left someone with a clone of mine, and he just dispelled. She's going to have to pay the bill on her own now." I whispered back. Shinobi may ignore doctor's orders, be late to meetings, be petty towards clients sometimes, but one thing they didn't do was skip out on paying for meals in the village. No one in their right mind paid, and then ran if they had a forehead protector on them.

"Who was it?" Sakura unfurled the scroll further, her eyes drooping. I reached out and touched her hand.

"Don't read it you're so tired. This stuff takes plenty of brainpower." Even with the Sharingan, memorizing medical texts would induce headaches. The amount of Kanji used, which neither I nor 'Sasuke' had knowledge of left the mind numb.

"Sorry, I tried push-ups while hanging upside-down on the roof today. How do you do hundreds of them?" My teammate sighed, closing the scroll. "So, spill."

"It was our proctor for the second exam, Mitarashi Anko. She interfered in my training, launched an impromptu spar, and then took me to the dango shop for a little heart-to-heart. And then my clone dispelled when the time came to pay for her 25 trays of dango."

Green eyes became boggled at the fact. Sakura hung her head, face shadowed. "That's fifty sticks. One stick has around 120 Kilocalories, 6000 in total. She's definitely gonna get fat."

"Not unless she stops training."

"True." Sakura then shrugged, back to normal. "Say, do your clones eating affect your hunger?"

"No, it stays the same. Their chakra is replenished a bit with the food, so the amount I receive back is a little higher." I had snuck to the hospital after making that clone, and then ran into Sakura on my way to the library to pass some time (read: hide).

On second thought, she was definitely sent by Kakashi to play counsellor. Which meant she would know to look here. I expanded my chakra sensing range as far as I could, and sensed her making her way here.

"I need to get away from here." I said suddenly, picking up my book and neatly aiming it back into it's place. The librarian scowled at the display, ignoring how awesome it was.

"Why Sasuke-kun?" Sakura power-walked to return her scroll while I fidgeted impatiently. Anko was gaining ground fast.

"She's after me. You can stay here." I said as I exited the library.

Sakura deadpanned. "We're teammates. We share the blame."

"No we don't, we pin it on Kakashi-sensei." I shot back and leapt to the roof, too fast for her to follow.

"That's unfair Sasuke-kun!" She called after me, but I began to jump up and down between the buildings, until I reached the bridge and dove into the river underneath. Using chakra, I began to push myself forward and swim upstream.

Anko was a tracker, and I needed to get rid of my scent. Sensing her still far away, but enough to see me should I jump high, I rose to the water and stood still on the current, before launching myself horizontally into a civilian district, spirally while exuding chakra to rid myself of the water.

Much like a dog, but then again the inspiration did strike me from Fang Over Fang.

I walked into a clothing store, one that hadn't been affected by the invasion I noted, and walked out wearing a white shirt, black pants and a pair of black sandals. I had not bought anything, except for a red wristband. It had become a habit to keep spare items on myself after the loss of my apartment.

In the distance I could sense approximately Anko reach the river, and then stay there for a while. I walked slowly, lest she fell out of range and breathed a sigh of relief when she finally retreated.

Now by myself, I let my thoughts drift, navigating my way out of the crowd.

There was a fair amount of techniques I had copied, and I was well-balanced in all areas, chakra control increasing as I focused solely on that. With enough augmentation I could fight Anko, and if I took off my weights, I was sure I could take her.

But I just did not think like a shinobi. I played to my strengths, I didn't directly go and extort people's weaknesses.

With Naruto I dallied with his clones rather than use my speed to knock him down before he made any and gave him plenty of space. With Neji I had not used much ninjutsu, instead keeping close to him rather than staying out of his range, or use Chidori Nagashi enough to incapacitate him. Same with Anko, I could have rammed enough chakra into her when she had my ankle in her hand, but I was focused on getting her to drop it, rather than damaging her. Kakashi-sensei...well he was beyond me. The more I counted my abilities, the more I realized how much my mindset was holding me back.

A mindset and morals I did not want to give up.

There was also the matter of Orochimaru whom I had met on the Konoha General Hospital roof, but was unable to clearly identify. Was it really Orochimaru, or some imposter? How could he survive the full sealing of his soul? Or was it someone trying to keep up the hoax? Kabuto perhaps? He certainly could do it, now that I thought about it.

With a sigh, I began to walk towards the training grounds again. Time to practice stealth, or spy on people and gather data. Reading people without the Sharingan to find their weaknesses ought to help me in fights. I needed to change my approach, to maim at least in order to not kill.

The corridor was not lit.

Deep in the bowels of Konoha's T&I, Kabuto walked with a calm gait, as if he belonged there. His steps made no sound, but he didn't make to conceal his presence. A crow mask adorned his face, while he was decked in ANBU gear.

There was no need for a Henge, he had cosmetically altered his appearance and hair, now jet black. Down to the body language and left hand dexterity, his disguise was perfect.

The spy turned a corner and then another, never once faltering in the maze-like design which housed prisoners. High profile ones, yet not very much threatening. It took a certain amount of intelligence to get out of here, after all, and not everyone had it, regardless of their knowledge of combat.

Seamless Kabuto slapped his palm to an innocuous brick, different from the others by a shade and released the captured chakra from his arm. A seal spread out on the wall in the semblance of a spider-web, recognizing the chakra of ANBU Crow and logging him in, before a series of light clicks sounded in the hallway ahead of him.

Traps disabled, Kabuto exhaled with a hint of exhaustion. Keeping siphoned chakra in his body was tiresome work, and he hadn't gotten around to storing it in a seal yet. He wasn't a prodigy at Fuinjutsu, only adept.

He walked to the cell at the end of the corridor, lit on both sides by a torches. Using his other hand, he released a second burst of stolen chakra, unlocking the door. Looking at the prisoner within, hollow-eyed and pale-skinned, Kabuto smiled in satisfaction.

"Hello, Tayuya."

"...mph?" She looked in his general direction, pupils unfocused. The rags she wore only covered her axial body, exposing her bone-thin limbs to the fullest. None of the usual fight was coming from her. He hadn't heard a single cuss word yet.

In an instant he closed the distance between them, flipping through hand-seals to deactivate the seals locking her chakra. He did not open the cuffs binding her ankles and wrists to the wall with short chains. Kabuto removed the cork of a bottle containing two pills, one red and one blue.

The latter he popped in her mouth, letting it slide down her throat with a small burst of water from his own mouth, a Water Bullet jutsu of the lowest magnitude. Using chakra scalpels in with inhuman precision and severed her vocal chords, healing the wounds before she could bleed a drop on the floor.

The girl winced and twisted as he chakra reserves were forcefully topped.

Kabuto simply slapped a self-made seal to mute all sound as she caused a ruckus.

Aware of the short time, he bent forward and shoved the red forbidden health pill down her throat, and stepped back.

Tayuya's mouth contorted in a horrific scream, like a perverted mask of human agony. Chains rankled as her hands reached for her throat to tear it open with her nails, struggling before she gave up and started throwing her back against the wall, tears streaming from her eyes.

Kabuto gazed impassively.

Both pills were his own design, and he was 75% certain she would live through it, owing to her adjustment to the curse mark. Her newly replenished chakra began to break down and supply her body with accelerated regeneration, visibly restoring her muscle and weight. Flesh gurgled beneath skin and pulsed, swelling, and then staying there.

Her vocal chords re-healed and Kabuto severed them again; his sound barrier would break with her high-pitched wails. With another final shudder, she stopped.

"There, there, that wasn't so bad, now was it?" Kabuto gave a heartless smile behind his mask as tears kept running down her still face. He wrinkled his nose at the mess underneath her legs, but it was understandable.

Feeling her pulse, he recognized her going into shock and jump-started her heart.

Three minutes had passed. Kabuto had a window of ten. It was within calculations. That was the reason why Tayuya had been chosen, despite being physically weaker than the others. Her extraction gave Kabuto time.

Double-timing back, the spy masked his chakra and with a chakra-sealing tag cloaked hers as well. He was well underground, but he didn't necessarily need to make it to the surface. Within the branch were ROOT tunnels, of which Kabuto knew of but the ANBU didn't.

And many ROOT shinobi were out in the field performing high rank missions, or supplementing the village ANBU ranks, also short-staffed. Unless he went tried to go to their base, the chances of running into one was slim.

Danzo could be so predictable sometimes.

Kabuto snuck his way out from underneath T&I to a playground, changing his outfit to his usual and disguising Tayuya's form with a genjutsu. Then he used Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu to dig himself out several feet above alongside his rescue.

The kids were laughably easy to use Genjutsu on as Kabuto snuck away from the scene, scampering into a thicket of trees that led all the way to Konoha's boundary walls barring some small housing colonies on the way he knew to avoid and traps he knew to dodge.

It had been eight minutes.

He practically tore through the trees as fast as he could with his chakra suppressed until he reached the wall and body-flickered to outside of Konoha.

Just in time.

"Keep her in one piece." He told his contact, a blank faced kid of about sixteen years. He nodded mutely ruffled his pockets to show tranquilizer darts, in case the girl got any funny ideas when she came to. "Good, you're not as incompetent as I thought."

The boy wordlessly tied the girl to his back, restraining her limbs in the process. And then he took off in the right direction.

Kabuto snuck back up the wall, palming a deck of playing cards, now in his usual clothes.

"Yo, Kogoro-san!" He greeted the chunin, not having to fake being out of breath. The on-duty ninja looked at him and laughed, lighting up a cigarette.

"Man, medical ninjas sure get tired easily. At least you got the cards." Kabuto walked out and handed him the deck. The man flicked through the cards and whistled at the artwork.

"A-ah, sorry! They belonged to a senpai of mine, and he thought they'd help me in studying anatomy." Kabuto scratched his cheek, appearing meek and nervous.

Kogoro the chunin patted his back, giving him a sly grin. "Anatomy, sure. I've seen prostitutes in more clothing than these ladies." Said he, leering at the artwork on the deck, the back of cards an innocent red background with white borders.

"I'm s-serious, they're not mine." Kabuto protested.

"Sure, sure." The chunin began walking away, browsing the very distracting cards. "Now you coming or what? My break just started, so you came in perfect time to grab a seat at my table."

Kabuto smiled goofily. "Some other time, Kogoro-san. I need to get back to the hospital."

Elsewhere, an alarm had sounded two minutes ago.

Hyuga Hinata came a bit too late to catch Sasuke at the library. Sakura had told her he'd ran away from someone, but would still be sneaking around the village.

"Did you ask him yet?" The Hyuga heiress asked the kunoichi softly, and she shook her head.

"No... it's kind of hard. Sasuke-kun has very good instincts when it comes to certain people."

Hinata twiddled her fingers, wondering why Sasuke would regard Kabuto-san with such suspicion. The medic-nin had healed her after her match with Neji, and also after invasion when complication arose with her heart. Her father was indebted to the polite boy.

And then she heard from her graduating girls of her class, among other gossip, how Sasuke almost had a grudge against Kabuto. Sakura had spoken about him to warn them, but Ino had outright laughed at her. When the pink-haired girl told her that Sasuke was the one suggesting they be wary, the Yamanaka had paused, and then changed the topic.

She herself had met with the silver-haired genin many times for follow-ups, and could find nothing weird about him. He was just a very kind person. Perhaps Sasuke had grown paranoid about people being nice to him considering he was the Last Uchiha, always thinking they had an ulterior motive. And many of them no doubt did.

But Hinata couldn't make herself believe it was Kabuto.

Now that she had been declared fully fit for duty, she needed answers, and she would not fear Uchiha Sasuke in order to defend a person she was very grateful towards.