Note: Anko – when written in kanji, it means red bean paste

The Sweet hell Technique (Amai Jigoku no Jutsu) – requires a can of red bean soup and a charm paper

All that made me, me

Chapter 3: F for Fail By: Seravy

She can hear the symphony of pride and joy orchestrated right before her, a coordinated effort in presenting their art. This was already the third time that she had watched this same play unfold before her. The only thing that was different was the record of attendance. She didn't actually count every head, but just from the sparseness of bodies, it was obvious that every year there were less people.

Those who were missing had all left knowing that every breath they take might be their last and that their family will be well taken care of under the third hokage's wise and hopeful leadership. They were not leaving those that they care about, rather, they were on a mission to protect them.

And in return for their selfless service, drafts to the army were not induced like in other countries, significantly boosting moral. For children under 12, whose parents were both involved in the war, it was arranged that at least one family member would remain in the village to perform defense duties.

This consideration had allowed newly graduated genins, still young and innocent about the world, to show off their well-earned forehead protectors with the Konoha mark boldly engraved on its metal piece to those who had stayed behind for their benefit.

Words of much needed encouragement, smiles of pride, fond ruffling of the hair surrounded them like an unbound energy. Those who passed by couldn't help but let that warmth wash over their war torn hearts, bidding them congratulations with reminiscent smiles.

But not everyone can take part in this parade as there were certain rules to join, rules that were unknowingly set by those who did not fulfill those requirements.

Anko couldn't stop the black envy that slithered lavishly over her beating heart, forcing her at this specific spot; a swing which hung from the grown tree grown directly before the academy entrance meters away. That way, she was separated from the forbidden territory but close enough to provoke her existence. She was here to face her own failure without escape although they all saw her as nothing but a sour reminder of reality.

They occasionally pointed at her with a discreet finger or a suggestive slant of the head, leaning over to the next ear for a quick whisper of words for all the wrong reasons. Anko snickered at their sad attempt at subtlety. In her eyes, it was all stupid.

There were others like her standing amongst the crowd, opposing to the rules. One of them was saying something, probably a compliment as it managed to trickle a smile off one of the ladies. It may seem like an innocent comment but to Anko, she could only see the sloppy plot behind those gestures. Anko had made it one of her moral codes never to be grouped into their clique. And to prevent herself from ever breaking that rule, she had gone all the way to make them her enemies with shenanigans that bordered cruel.

And now that the crowd had dispersed after sharing their plans of celebration, her deliberate foes stalked towards her like three gigantic shadows. She was outnumbered but Anko made no attempt to leave. That would be losing by default.

"Heya bean paste, heard'ja failed… "

The three kids before her all paused with faux drama before proceeding with the punch line.

"...AGAIN!"

Anko turned to a side, shrugging off their low blow as they hooted their victory.

"That's cause I'm no ass-kisser," spat Anko, the most poignant finger of the hand jutting to the sky.

"Oh, Nao-sensei, I wanna be a great teacher just like you."

Anko batted her lashes, voice and smile squeezed up an octave with the finishing touch drenched in sarcasm. After her last trick of ants in the pants, the three dumb-ass, as she called them, were effectively silenced into long distant attacks of empty threats. Normally they'd stay away but today was just too perfect to pass up.

"At least I passed, loser!" yelled the leftmost boy, his cheeks flushing red. Even his friends had laughed at him for that.

"Hey…Come to think of it, you were last at everything, bean paste!!" chortled Tenron. He was older than Anko by a year, twice her size and twice her menace, a fact which no one else seemed to notice.

"That isn't true, she was first in a lot of things… if you count from the bottom!" finished Suzu. Anko hated her the most, their resentment going way back to when they used to share a room at the orphanage. This was the girl who always ratted her to Nao.

Suddenly, an abrupt blunt force kicked into the wooden board she sat on, throwing her off into the air. Anko coughed up a lungful of dust as her face slapped into the hard dried mud surrounding the tree.

"Get use to it cause that's what it'd be like playing in the academy sand box for the rest of your life!" snickered Tenron.

That smug satisfaction goaded the anger that Anko had tried to contain. She dug a hand into her green pocket, the other into her holster that she had strapped to her knee. And before the trio can make their second move, Anko combined the two items and flipped to her side. The piece from her pocket flew towards Suzu as she performed a seal, activating the charmed paper. Under a loud 'pop', the airborne attack exploded, splashing its content all over the targets.

Tenron, Suzu and Shizumaru shielded themselves but it was useless against the assault's liquid form. Hot shiruko, heated by the exploding charm, infested their hair, clothes and any exposed skin and upon contact, they screamed with flailing movements.

"Hah! How does it feel to be covered in this hot shiruko! I call it, the Sweet Hell Technique!!"

Anko stuck her tongue out before going for an escape. But only after one, two, three strides and she was caught. It wasn't hard to catch up as soon as they ignored the uncomfortable thick fluid and moved. Their longer legs made up for several of Anko's steps and with advantageous arm length, Tenron grabbed the spiked hair and pulled.

It didn't take much strength to push the ten year old into the ground and the other two cooperated by pinning down Anko's arms.

"Let me go or you'll be really sorry!"

Anko struggled, regretting that she had actually held back on her technique. If she had added more chakra, they could be seriously burned. But reality was, she didn't, and now Tenron's snarling face looked down unto her with absolute pleasure.

"Oh, and what is it that you're going to do, tiny? Paste my face with bean-paste?"

Anko's mouth twitched with disgust. Despite her situation, her conscience just couldn't let that one go.

"That was a really bad rhyme."

Tenron smirk disappeared into a thin line. He hated to be embarrassed and Anko watched his leg wind up behind him. She was more than ready to take the hit as she always did until suddenly, Suzu screamed.

The moment they look to her, Tenron and Shizumaru stared, eyes and mouth gaping as the red bean soup that remained in Suzu's short hair moved over her face. She tried to slap it out but with lively agility, the blob jumped out and unto the ground. They all watched it in alarm, the hold on Anko long forgotten.

It oozed with size, growing taller and wider with a round shape. Limbs started to jut out from the sides, bubbling with hostility. Only human's most basic instinct remained and the three children ran away, screaming. Anko merely glared at the phenomenon, gritting her teeth with disappointment.

"You didn't need to butt in, ya know."

It was a simple type of illusionary technique that required one to focus and use their chakra to bring form to their imagination. She had tried to learn it many times from her friend but have yet to succeed. Upon disengaging the technique, the blob form lost its solid appearance and faded into nothingness and in its place stood Kurenai.

"I had to," the reticent girl supplied quietly.

She never interfered with Anko's personal affairs as that was one of the first mutual rules they had wordlessly established between themselves. So even though she knew all of Anko's pranks in advance, Kurenai never joined nor disclosed them with a few exceptions of prep-work sometimes. That included when her friend took the consequences of her actions. She only helped when it was serious and this was one of those rare times. That boy had come with foul intentions. He never knew when to stop while Anko never knew when to speak up as she considered it a serious violation of "ratting". Kurenai didn't want another injured Anko walking around with rainbow hats and scarves, pretending that nothing happened.

The ten year old understood that but her stubbornness held onto the two words she really wanted to say. Dust and dried mud groped her clothes and hair. Anko ran a long yellow sleeve over her mouth, trying to remove the dry crusty flavour lingering within. The last time Kurenai had helped, she gave her the silent treatment although it only lasted for the morning. She was grateful but more than anything, she hated herself for involving Kurenai.

Her friend took out the handkerchief that she always hid in the insides of her robe and started to dust off her face. Anko let her, the only apology she could muster up at the moment.

"I'm not a kid, ya know," grumbled Anko, her eyes darting shyly to a side.

Kurenai shrugged, the tight corners of her mouth pulled slightly up into a soft smile. She knew Anko had already forgiven her. They never fought for long. With the previous event quickly ditched to a side, the ten year old exploded with a large smile.

"CONGRATS!"

Anko may not have passed but she was truly glad for her friend. Too bad she had already used up that can of red bean soup. After wiping her right palm along her green pants, Anko jutted it towards Kurenai.

"Show me that forehead protector! Always wanted to see it up close!"

"I didn't pass," said Kurenai.

Pause. Anko's smile slowly slipped from her mouth. They have trained together countless times and although Kurenai wasn't the best at close combat, she can perform every academy technique with ease. Her marks were mediocre but she always passed and that was enough to fuel Anko's disbelief.

"What?! I was made to fail but… you can't fail!"

"I did."

"What went wrong?!"

"The technique didn't work I guess."

Anko released a breath of heated anger, her brows now dipped with determination. Was it because Kurenai was her friend? Or did they find out that Kurenai had helped with the ant collecting?She was tricked but she wasn't going to let Nao do it twice. Anko quickly grabbed Kurenai's hand and strode with large urgent steps. Her friend fell easily into a comfortable pace with her long palelegs.

"Where are we going?" asked the taller girl, compiling with Anko's lead.

"We're going to talk to granny."

"Why?"

"Because they've made a mistake."

"I don't want to go."

"You have to. You were just nervous. That's all. I'm sure if you talked to granny, she'll give you another chance. Or that Yano dude. He's a lot nicer than Nao," reasoned Anko.

"I don't mind retaking the year."

Kurenai's hand slipped out of her own but Anko instinctively grabbed onto the wrist instead, her vision filled with the academy.

"Stop talking crazy talk. You don't want to waste another year."

But her linear steps were forced to a halt as she felt Kurenai yank her hand away. Anko turned around and sighed with her arms resting on her hips. All Kurenai needed was a push was what she had thought.

"This is no time to be shy! I'll go talk to granny with you so don't worry! Then I could expose her evil scam in front of everyonethen they'll have to graduate me as well and we could be the bestest shinobi ever!!"

"I don't want to be shinobi."

Kurenai stood with her hands gripped tightly onto the deep blue fabric of her robe. She could feel Anko's gaze and the reproach behind it.Never once had she felt such a silence, a need to explain without the means to.The air between them moved with thickness that grew with weight but as always, Anko was the first one to speak.

"You failed on purpose."

Unlike her usual retorts, this one was spoken softly, as if the quietness can wipe out that possibility.

"Is that it, Kurenai?"

Impatience ate at her. It just didn't make sense at all. Not getting a reply, Anko grabbed onto Kurenai's shoulders, trying to see behind the long wavy bangs.

"Answer me!"

"Why are you so mad? Now I can retake the year with you."

Kurenai's every word shook, her resolve as weak as her voice. Anko may be small but the weight on her shoulders felt bruising, the hard look in those deep dark eyes scared her.

"That's not the point! You failed on purpose!!! Why would you do something like that?!"

Anko's intimidating proximity pressured her heart into a chaotic rhythm, forcing every muscle in her body into a taunt tightness. Kurenai pushed her jaws together and shoved off Anko's arms. She can breathe again.

"I don't want to be a shinobi."

Incomprehension once again moved its influence over Anko's limbs. They went wild into the air and stomped the ground, trying to exert the uncontrollable frustration running through them.

"But we promised! We're going to be the bestest kunoichi together!"

"I said I don't want to be a shinobi!!" yelled Kurenai. The contained volume suddenly exploded from her chest, bringing back memories of the world as black as her hair.

"I hate them! They're nothing but trash that kill and lie!"

"Shut up! Do you know what you're saying!?" screamed Anko, forcing her voice to reason the quiet girl she once knew. This was the only person that she had ever shared her dreams with and Kurenai had spoke those words while knowing them.

"I'll say it again. Shinobis are trash. I hate them! Why are you choosing them over me?"

"What are you saying? This has nothing to do with choosing!"

"But you said you'd choose shiruko over shinobi!"

And Anko liked Kurenai over shiruko.

"This is stupid! You're talking like you're three!!!"

She liked Anko. That much she knew as the little girl was the only one who could fill her with a loud serenity that pacified the emptiness in her heart. But for once, that same innocence and endearing ignorance was the very thing that clawed at her chest with a cobalt burning. A beautiful woman with long wavy black hair until her waist filtered across her eyes. She reached out and gently cupped Kurenai's face in her white bandaged hands, mouth moving with words that she failed understand. She habitually felt the craved wooden piece on her necklace, its edges sharper than ever.

"You're just like her…"

Kurenai's voice returned to a low whisper but with a quality of renounce.

"What?"

"I hate you. You're nothing but a big liar, Anko!"

Kurenai almost choked on her words and Anko bit her lip as she felt a hot sting in her eyes that she hasn't felt in years. And before Anko could stop herself, the main method of self-defense she had always used moved at its own accord.

"I hate you too! Dumbass! Idiot! Creepy girl! Red-eye weirdo! I'm never going to talk to you again! You can stay here and rot for all I care!!!"

And she turned around and ran.

Next Chapter: Mother and father