Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

References to the Anko filler arc, especially at the end. I was playing around with Anko's personality as we saw it there in her childhood, rather than as an adult.
——————

-

The argument lasted almost a month, and had descended to childish retorts by the time it was concluded: "Jiraiya's already teaching a team!" "Tsunade isn't." "Tsunade is busy with her medical training." "I'm busy with training also."

Sarutobi finally started to win when he tricked Orochimaru into arguing that the design of the teams--balancing the better students with the lesser ones in an effort to improve everyone and prevent excessive personal pride in relation to skill--was defective. The older man, after another week, at last said that teaching students one-on-one was completely impractical, but suggested that if Orochimaru really thought it was the better way, he prove it.

That was when Orochimaru caught on; but to Sarutobi's surprise, he asked flatly to be given the records for the upcoming graduates.
-

He was surprised again when Orochimaru came to his office two days later and said he had chosen Mitarashi Anko. The younger man prized intelligence almost as much as talent and skills combined--and for Anko, though she was one of the few students still being permitted to graduate early, her intelligence was her lowest skill in comparison to everything else.

"I already spoke to her yesterday," Orochimaru replied, when he mentioned it. "I believe she has some potential."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow, but agreed without further argument.

At least he's willing to teach someone his knowledge, he decided. It'll be good for him.

—

Orochimaru was a respected jounin of the village. The nickname of sannin given to him and his teammates had already become common by the time he came by Anko's house and said to her father that he was considering training her personally, explaining briefly and with some editing the conversation that had occurred between him and Sarutobi.

He spoke to her in private, and only briefly, asking her opinion of her classes and classmates, and what she intended to do if she was allowed to enter the ranks of the Konoha shinobi by becoming a genin. When he ended the conversation and stood, Anko thanked him for his consideration even while feeling that she had completely failed whatever test he'd set before her.

Her parents told her after he left how lucky she would be if he chose to take her on as a student; and the first time she watched him fight on a mission, she knew they had under-exaggerated.

—

Orochimaru chose the girl as an experiment. Her scores indicated that she wouldn't be gratingly incompetent, and the mess wouldn't be a complete waste of time if he learned how far a person could lift themselves above their base limits in the process.

He'd also found that the majority of the people in her class that she was friends with were ones whose scores indicated that they would be held in the Academy for another year, or not passed at all. That removed the possibility of her associating with the future students of the other jounin selected to teach this year, none of whom Orochimaru had any care for.

The way she refrained from speaking poorly of any of her teachers or classmates, even with leading questions, also indicated that she knew how to keep things to herself. He would have to teach her how to keep her thoughts out of her face, though.

—

Two months after she'd been accepted as his genin, Orochimaru began taking her on missions with him. Not in that they were assigned low class missions like the other teams--though they were, but it was rare and he almost always argued with the Hokage when it happened--but that he took regular missions for himself and, if he judged that she wouldn't get in his way too much, took her along with him.

(Anko heard her mother complain about it to her father once behind a closed door, after she'd had to visit the hospital again before being able to return home; but Orochimaru out-ranked them and his decisions were sanctioned by the Hokage himself. They didn't know how to argue against it even if they'd been willing to.)

She did all she could not to get in his way. She practiced everything he taught her over and over until she could do it easily, she read everything he suggested or that seemed like it would be useful later, and she tried to never show fear or revulsion, no matter what the technique or method he used to complete his--their--missions.

But it was never exactly enough. Anko could feel it sometimes, in the way he appraised her as she showed how good she'd gotten at a jutsu or in his tone as he reminded her what a kunoichi was supposed to be.

She wished he would just tell her, instead of leaving it up to her to decipher his body language and expressions, even though she knew that that was another form of training. But still, she had to know what he thought she was lacking before she could change it.

—

She'd been standing guard outside the building when he came out, startling her.

Orochimaru gave her a disapproving look for that as he finished drying his hands, and then checked for blood under his nails before crumpling up the paper towel and sliding it into his pocket.

"Sorry," she said, ducking her head slightly.

"What was so distracting?" he asked. His tone was mild, but she knew him a little bit by this point, and it made her shift her feet in disgrace.

Anko pointed down the road, to an area at the edge of the market where a small group was standing around. "That guy over there was calling something about snakes and mongooses earlier."

"Hm," Orochimaru replied. "Let's go."

She'd assumed he meant back to the village; so when he started walking in the direction she'd pointed, Anko had to catch herself from the way she'd automatically headed before moving to follow him.
-

The man had picked a pale snake up from one of the cages at his feet with a wire, and was holding it at the base of its head, showing the people its fangs, when they walked up. He looked over, saw their forehead protectors, and nodded deeply once before turning his attention back to the rest of the group.

He pressed the snake's head against the edge of the wooden box set on the small table, and it immediately bit viciously into the wood, venom trickling down the side. Anko glanced up at Orochimaru, but his expression was only one of vague, detached interest.

The man set the snake back into the box he'd taken it from, and then gestured to another cage set on the table. Anko lifted on her feet slightly to see inside, and the teenager in front of her shifted further to the side, moving out of her line of vision.

"The fight is always decided in the first second," the man at the front said, touching the barrier that separated a darker snake from the mongoose. "You'll see, the mongoose invariably will attack the snake's upper jaw; and the snake will only attack with her fangs. Never once have I seen a snake use her body to crush the mongoose to death, even if her fangs have been incapacitated."

"Does the snake ever win?" the teenager beside her's girlfriend asked, sounding doubtful.

"Not often," the man admitted. "But, because the mongoose always goes for the fangs, if he hurts his mouth while attacking the venom can still kill him. So it isn't until the next day that you will find out if he won, either."

There were various quiet noises of understanding throughout the small crowd. The man at the front gripped the divider, and both animals inside increased their restless movements.

"Ready?" he asked the group, and then lifted it.

The mongoose was in the snake's side before it was all the way up, teeth already in its jaw. Anko balanced on the balls of her feet, trying to see inside.

The man had been correct. The snake could easily wrap the rest of its body around the mongoose and squeeze it to death--even with it thrashing, Anko could tell it was more than long enough--but it didn't. Instead, it only tried to get the mongoose free from its jaw, even while the other animal wetly chewed. The mongoose's head was already covered with blood, but it had dug its claws into the snake's body and was clinging too tightly to be removed.

With a sick, slurpy crunch, the mongoose broke off one of the snake's fangs. Anko shuddered and dropped onto her feet again, stepping back as her mouth pulled up in a grimace. Orochimaru set a hand on her shoulder.

The crunching noises continued for several more seconds. When they lessened, Anko hesitated and then lifted herself up once more; Orochimaru's hand slid off.

Inside the box, the mongoose was lapping up the blood surrounding the long body of the snake. It was quivering as it did so.

Anko grimaced again and took another step back.

This time, Orochimaru turned and began to walk away. She followed gratefully.
-

When they were half an hour from the town, Orochimaru dropped suddenly out of the trees, rummaging in his backpack as he did. Anko echoed the motion.

Once on the ground, Orochimaru yanked a small scroll out of his pack and held it in the crook of his elbow as he continued searching. A few seconds later, though, he made an irritated, frustrated noise and slung the pack back on. He then bit down hard on his pointer finger, opening the scroll with a quick one-handed motion as he did.

He began to walk through the trees even as he started writing; Anko didn't insult his skill by moving to the front to break a path, and instead kept pace a few steps to the side and behind him.

Orochimaru had to squeeze his finger multiple times before he'd finished scrawling out his notes--from what she could see of the page, it looked like shorthand, but one using kanji too complicated for her to guess at. He waved the scroll slowly once he was finished, and rolled it back up when the blood had dried.

—

He was sure Sarutobi would accuse his teaching methods of being unnecessarily grueling if the man ever found out about them; but so far, he knew nothing. The reason was, very simply, that Orochimaru had the sense to never push to the point that it attracted attention.

Anko was still pale from chakra exertion the next morning, so he with half-concealed annoyance changed his plans for the day.

"Don't worry about using chakra with this jutsu," he said, holding his hands in the first seal as she quickly moved to imitate it. "In fact, it would be a very bad idea. This is a double suicide technique."

Anko's eyes widened slightly, but he noticed that she didn't move her hands out of position. "A . . . suicide technique? But, Orochimaru-sama, aren't those. . . ."

He smiled.

"They're only labeled 'forbidden' because so many people lack the sense to learn them right," he replied, "and wind up killing themselves needlessly. But if the situation is completely hopeless, isn't it better to take your enemy into death with you, instead of leaving him alive to attack others?"

Anko bit her lip faintly, nodding at his words. "Yeah."

"Well then," Orochimaru said, and moved to the second seal. "This is the 'double serpent suicide' technique. When" he continued, not bothering to use 'if' "you're doing this for real, you'll only use one of your hands--you'll have to use the other person's to kill them as well."

She imitated his motions.

—

Anko didn't really notice how often he touched her until she realized that the teacher for Ikuo, the only person from their class who'd made it to genin that she'd been friends with before, almost never did.

"Does your teacher hate you guys or something?" she asked one day, when Orochimaru hadn't wanted to take her on his latest mission and she was taking a break from practice. She and Ikuo had gone out for lunch--Anko's treat, because even though she only received a fourth of the pay from their missions, that was still sufficient to make her rich compared to the rest of the genin.

Ikuo pulled a face at her. "No, he doesn't. What's that supposed to mean? Just because you're all--"

Anko rolled her eyes while tilting her head back briefly, cutting Ikuo off. "But he never touches you or anything. If he doesn't hate you, why won't he even do that?"

Ikuo was looking at her really strangely now. "Why would he do that? Isn't that weird, to be so familiar?"

Really? she thought.

It must have shown on her face--he'd be so disappointed by the slip--because Ikuo raised an eyebrow. "Why? Does your teacher do that?"

Anko pulled the face Ikuo'd used earlier. "No. But, my parents do it. Don't yours?"

"Of course," Ikuo replied, still looking at her oddly as she picked up her glass. "But that's family. Geez, Anko."

—

When she'd been his genin for almost ten months, Anko noticed that Orochimaru had begun to wear his forehead protector less often. He'd never worn it within the village itself, the same way he'd rarely worn his jounin uniform unless they were about to leave for a mission, but lately he'd been taking it off at random intervals while they were traveling.

By the time he'd stopped wearing it almost completely except for when they were leaving or entering the village, Anko quit wearing hers as well. But she still kept it tucked in the bottom of her backpack during missions, as proof of her village association in case anyone asked.
-

She'd also noticed, a long time ago, that a lot of the older kunoichi wore fishnet. And a bunch of them didn't even wear it practically--it was just to look good.

Orochimaru had always emphasized practicality over style, though. That's why she'd stopped wearing dresses or skirts or anything else that would have hampered her taijutsu, and wore only shorts and a loose t-shirt.

After she bought the stockings--feeling embarrassed the whole time, from picking the ones in the right size to carrying them out of the store--Anko spent a week training in them in private before finally wearing them to meet Orochimaru. He'd raised an eyebrow, but when Anko proved that she could still move and kick and run as well as before, he didn't say anything, and nothing really changed.

Anko felt ridiculous within three days, but refused to stop wearing them. That only would have made it more transparent.
-

One of the snakes laughed at her, in that strange, sibilant way of theirs when it first saw her in the stockings; but it wouldn't tell her why.

—

He took a long time to answer the door when she knocked on it; Anko was already restraining the urge to fidget by the time it opened, and the long stare he then gave her didn't help.

"Anko-kun," he finally said. "What is it?"

She shifted on her feet, and then told herself harshly to stop it before she made herself look worse in front of him.

"I . . . happy birthday," she said, and held out the small package.

Orochimaru actually looked surprised and bemused at that. He gazed at the box without blinking, but then he didn't blink as much as most people so it might not mean anything. . . .

"Jiraiya-san told me," she explained, when he hadn't moved.

"Ah," Orochimaru replied, as if everything made sense now. "Was he smirking as he did?"

". . . He was smil--. . . yes," Anko answered, looking down. She started to pull her arms back, and then hesitated, not sure if it was ruder to force him to accept the gift or to take it away.

Orochimaru exhaled faintly.

"You're still poor at reading people," he said, and then took the package. After a moment's hesitation, he opened the door further. "Come in."
-

She tried not to stare as she slid off her sandals, but she'd never been inside his apartment before. It seemed small, but that might have been because of the bookshelves set against every available section of wall.

I have a lot more to study, she realized, hesitating at the entryway and looking into the room.

There was only one chair at the table. Orochimaru picked up an opened scroll that had been resting on the seat and gestured for her to sit down; when she did, he set the scroll aside and began to open the package's wrapping. Anko rubbed a toe against her ankle, in one of the small gaps created by the fishnet.

After he'd opened the box to see the small brush and plastic bottle of ink inside, she set her foot back on the floor. "It's so you can write," she explained. "Even if you're on a mission. The woman at the store said it's designed for traveling, so you won't have to cut your fingers anymore if there's no pens around."

Orochimaru studied the box for a few more seconds, and then looked over at her.

"Thank you," he said, and reached out to briefly rub his thumb against the skin of her jaw, below her ear. "This will be useful."

She smiled at him.
-

He asked if she wanted some tea after a few more moments. Anko knew he wouldn't have offered if he minded her presence that much, so she said in yes in order to have the chance to stay in the apartment a little longer.

The entryway to the kitchen was half-blocked by another bookshelf; Anko could hear Orochimaru moving in there, but not see him. She hesitated on the edge of the chair for a minute, but finally stood up and went over to one of the shelves.

The shelf was mostly orderly, with books stacked side-by-side and scrolls kept separate, but there were places where loose-leaf journals or random scrolls had been shoved on top of the books haphazardly. Anko read the titles of everything that had a title, which was actually only about half, but stopped short of touching or pulling any of them down.

She turned around when Orochimaru came back in. He handed one of the cups to her, and then sat back down in chair with his own.

He didn't insult her by warning her to be careful, which made her happy--Anko had come to learn that many of Orochimaru's compliments were in his silences rather than his words. But she took a step away from the shelves, anyway.

"Have you written any books like this, Orochimaru-sama?" she asked after the silence had stretched out for several minutes.

"No," he replied, sounding faintly amused.

". . . ah," she said quietly.

"What are you interested in?" he asked, after taking another sip of his tea.

"Um . . . there's a lot in here on chakra manipulation," she said, eyeing the books on the top shelves. "You don't have much on weapons."

"Those are in the other room," he replied. "Along with the maps."

Anko nodded a few times, turning partially to look at the top of a different shelf.

"Your tea will get cold," he mentioned a moment later.

Anko started slightly, then started drinking from the glass she'd been cupping in her hands for the last few minutes.

Orochimaru didn't say anything else, so when he stood up, she quickly drained the cup and followed him into the kitchen.

The kitchen was cleaner than the main room--besides one scroll that was sitting on top of the refrigerator, it looked like a normal room and not a library. Anko's eyes widened when she saw the large jar sitting on the counter, tucked between a set of knives and the fridge.

"What's that?"

"Habu awamori," Orochimaru replied, looking over as he set the two cups in the sink. "A clear liquor they make up in Stone."

"Habu . . ." Anko said, still staring at the large snake coiled within the jar. "It's named after the snake?"

"Yes," he replied. "Part of the distilling process is soaking the habus in a vat of the liquor--apparently it's good for health."

"Habus are poisonous," Anko objected, and the corner of Orochimaru's mouth curved down slightly.

"The liquor dissolves the poison, Anko-kun," he said, as he began rinsing the cups. "That's why the cheapest antidote for snakebites is buying a bottle of alcohol, remember?"

"Right," she replied, glancing at the counter. "Sorry, sir. I forgot."

After he turned off the faucet, she broke the silence by asking: "How do they get the snake like that?"

"That particular brewery ices the habu until it's half-conscious, and then bleeds and guts it," he replied. "When it's taken off the ice and regains consciousness, it still tries to strike."

Anko's lips curled back in a grimace for a couple seconds before she caught herself. She nodded, and then asked, "What's it taste like?" to try to cover further.

"I don't know," Orochimaru replied, setting the cups to dry. "It was very expensive; I'm saving it for a special occasion."

She frowned. "Your birthday doesn't count?"

"No," Orochimaru replied, and his voice was a little darker. He tapped the jar's side briefly with a knuckle. "Something like that hasn't happened yet."

"You should head home," he added. "Did you tell your parents where you were going?"

"No . . . okay." Anko went back into the main room, feeling the slight change in temperature on her stockinged feet from the linoleum to the wood. Orochimaru followed her out of the kitchen, but returned to the scroll he'd been reading at the table as she pulled on her sandals.
-

Anko left the apartment with the strange feeling that something had changed, or that if she had done something different or he had said something different, then something would have changed . . . but it didn't make sense.

He had mostly liked the gift, hadn't he? As much as he liked anything that came from another person. . . .

The nagging feeling that something would have become different went away when he showed her the scroll for summoning the snakes a week after that, and said she could sign it if she was willing to take the risk.

He started calling her 'Anko' soon after she did; she was sure it meant something, that she'd done some thing right even if he still gave her that look during missions like she was lacking.

—

Orochimaru was a respected jounin of the village. The nickname of sannin given to him and his teammates had already become common by the time he came by Anko's house and said to her father that he was considering training her personally. Her parents told her after he left how lucky she would be if he chose to take her on as a student; and the first time she watched him fight on a mission, she knew they had under-exaggerated.

When he told her that the Hokage already knew about the experiments going on at Jirojima, what could she do but want to believe him?

—

After the spectacular yet expected failure of every experiment save his own student, Orochimaru sent Amachi away once he'd shut the doors, not wanting to hear self-confidant explanations of how things would work better next time. There was no reason to cut all ties to the man--he might prove helpful later--but Orochimaru had no more current use for him.

Anko pushed one of the doors open several minutes later, leaning on it heavily. She seemed to be panting from such a simple exertion as that.

He'd felt how clammy her skin was when he touched her before, and how it had been sticky in from the sweat of the curse seal's fever. Orochimaru still had his first lab, the one in Konoha, to clean up before he was free--but if he left her on this abandoned island she might very well die before anyone came for her.

But she might live. So he couldn't afford the risk.

When Anko noticed him, she shivered and went still; but when she forced herself to look him in the face, he was disappointed to find there was still something resembling hope there.

But she stayed where she was. He should give her credit for that, he supposed.

"Come here," he said, gesturing briefly.

". . . I chose," she replied.

"I know," Orochimaru replied, the corner of his mouth curving up. "That's why I have to take care of your memories."

Anko stared at him. When he took a step forward, she shuddered once and shoved away from the door, beginning to run.
-

He caught her easily, sweeping her legs out from under her and wrapping a hand around her neck. Anko clawed at it as he carefully and patiently put pressure on her throat, but he ignored the deep scratches.

Soon after her coughing turned to choking, the curse seal activated itself.

Orochimaru prolonged the fight for several minutes after that, studying the changes and advantages that the seal gave her. It didn't increase her tactical skill, as evidenced by the fact that she continued to attack him head-on until she ran out of weapons, but that he wrote off as a personal flaw.

It did increase her endurance, but he lacked the time to see by how much. The Leaf had two decoders talented enough to be able to partially decipher the notes he hadn't removed yet. Orochimaru was forced to end the fight after eight minutes.

He'd dislocated Anko's arm before he was able to get her down on the ground, and she had managed to fall close enough to a kunai that he had to keep it twisted over her head, leaving him with only one free hand. Her other arm was trapped under her, and he'd pinned both of her legs with one of his own. The curse seal was still glistening over her skin as she glared at him, trying to thrash her way free despite the fact her jaw was clenched against the damage that did to her arm.

The curse seal highly influenced personality, it seemed. Or did it tap into traits that were dormant . . . no, that was unlikely.

If she had understood--but no, it had been his fault for expecting too much when the evidence had been plain--but if she had understood, then that second hypothesis might have been possible. But it was more likely that the curse seal induced an urge to fight beyond the bearer's normal attitude. He'd have to test it later, when his time was finally and completely his own.

If she had only understood then. . . .

. . . No, Orochimaru decided, and stared down at Anko as he tightened his hand around her throat once more. It would have changed nothing.

Choking someone to unconsciousness was almost trickier than to death, and just as messy. But it was the second-fastest way to knock her out, without having to take the time to bandage any wounds.

If he'd been willing to expend the energy, he could have selectively wiped the last year's events; but a full erasure was more efficient. He still considered doing the latter, though, while waiting for Anko to go limp--there was something about removing all memories of himself that Orochimaru disliked. It was too much like dying.

He left her in a different building, granting a small kindness since she'd managed to survive: if she did die here, it wouldn't be from exposure.