A/N: Sorry for the long wait everyone!
Chapter 2: Bad Luck
It all began with the Chuunin exam. I was going after him. I was going to end his life. I was ready for anything now. I lost the battle and ended up with a mark on my neck. That mark made me miserable for the next few days. I met him again for a second time in which I won, but he managed to escape. The third time we encountered each other, I swore to myself then that I would kill Orochimaru once and for all. He wouldn't get to me. It was all over for him, and I would be a hero.
"Anko, I meet you again, my dear," he licked his lips with his long, slimy, snake-like tongue.
"The pleasure's all mine," I responded sarcastically. I drew out two handfuls of kunai knives and threw them at him with precision. With a few quick hand motionsfrom Orochimaru, the kunai hit a log instead of my intended target. I cursed under my breath and rubbed my neck. I looked around, but I could not find any trace of him at all. That was when something hit me really hard on my head and everything went fuzzy, bright circles danced around me, and then everything went black.
I woke up in a futon in a fair sized room with a wooden paneled floor. I was freezing and I felt bare. My hair had been undone, and I spotted my headband lying off to the side in a neat pile with my regular clothes. I stared down at my almost naked body. I wasn't quite naked. A light weight and flowy white dress with purple ends had replaced my regular clothes. I rubbed my head and my neck. They both hurt really badly.
"Are you up?" a woman in a similar dress walked in. "I washed your clothes for you."
"I noticed," I said, getting up. This definitely felt bare. "Where the heck am I?" The woman smiled up at me.
"Lord Orochimaru's house." So…that snake had taken me in. This was certainly puzzling. The question of why he would show hospitality to me made my head hurt.
"I'm to show you around the house," the woman stood up and smiled again. "My name is Mahiro. I'm a maid in this household, just like you've just become." A maid? That's what I was? I smiled and didn't worry for long. This was my chance to make sure Orochimaru was killed.
"Are you coming?" Mahiro gestured for me to follow her. I picked up a kunai knife and concealed it in my dress. Orochimaru had just brought his death into his house.
After a tour which seemed to take hours, Mahiro gave me my first assignment. I was to prepare the table for Orochimaru that night for dinner. I hadn't been trained to do this sort of stuff. I knew how to fight, but not prepare tables for dinner.
"Mahiro, wait. How do you set the table? I was never taught how to do this," I said sheepishly. Mahiro giggled and did an example at one seat. The chopsticks were set on an elegant chopstick holder so that the tips were neatly propped up to the right of the plate. The teacup was facedown directly above the chopsticks and the napkin went on top of the plate. Soup spoon: facedown and to the left of the plate. Rice bowl: directly above the plate and facedown like everything else. It didn't seem too hard.
"Chopsticks are in the jar over there. Make sure they match because Lord Orochimaru doesn't like mismatching chopsticks. Soup spoons are in the drawer to the left of the sink, teacups are in the cupboard to the right of the sink, plates are on the rack over there, and rice bowls are in the cupboard above and to the left of the sink," Mahiro smiled and left. I sighed and looked at the long stretch of the table. I counted fifty seats minus the one that Mahiro did. I had to set forty-nine seats. I decided that setting the tables in sets of ten would be easiest, so I collected ten teacups, ten plates, ten pairs of chopsticks, ten rice bowls, and ten soups spoons. I balanced them all carefully and brought them over to the table with a little bit of struggle and began setting the table. It took me forever because finding matching chopsticks was hard to do in a jar of chopsticks in helter-skelter. At last, only ten more seats remained. I only had one more trip to the kitchen to do. The drill was the same, ten of everything, all balanced carefully. I was walking through the doorway to the dining room when the mark on my neck gave a sharp twang of pain and disrupted the balance. All the dishes soared through the air. I ran and quickly grabbed all of the plates and rice bowls using my reflexes. The soup spoons and chopsticks didn't really matter, but I was too late to catch the teacups. They crashed to the floor and shattered. I gasped and ran over to pick the shards up. I heard the gasps of other maids who had come to see what had happened.
No stress. It was okay. These sort of things happened all the time. I didn't care. It was all Orochimaru's fault anyway for giving me that mark. I made a few hand symbols quickly and incinerated the shards, leaving a pile of ash. A maid handed me a broom and a dustpan and I brushed the ash hastily into the dust pan and tossed it out a window. The view made me freeze. It was beautiful. The window looked over a giant forest, which I presumed was the forest where the Chuunin exams were taking place. This was my chance to escape. I raised one leg to the window sill and was just about to jump out when someone grabbed my arm.
"Now, now, Anko. You don't really think I'm going to let you go that easily, do you?" I looked over my shoulder and saw Orochimaru smiled at me. "You're too precious to me. I can't let you go." I smiled and wrenched my arm away from him and swung a kunai knife at him. The other maids gasped and ran over to hold me back. Orochimaru backed off slightly and I saw my chance. I wrenched myself out of the maids' graps and I leapt out of the window.
I felt the wind blowing by me and saw the walls of his house zooming past me. I realized that the wind was blowing my dress upward, so I held it down. This was too easy. I landed and ran towards the Forest of Death. I was almost doomed without kunai knives, but I would rather not be with Orochimaru.
"Tch," Orochimaru licked his lips. "Run, Anko. You'll never escape me." He leapt out after me and trailed after my footprints that I had carelessly left behind.
It wasn't long before Orochimaru caught up to me. He grabbed me, but I resisted.
"No! I'm not going back!" I bit fiercely into his arm, but he smiled and only dragged me along.
"There are limits to your power, Anko," Orochimaru smiled at me.
"I'm through with accepting limits!" I shouted. I continued to resist me until he took the butt of a kunai knife and jabbed it into my stun spot.
"No!" I screamed before everything went fuzzy and black.
I woke up in my room. A large group of faces were staring down at me.
"She's awake!" I heard. The maids quickly dispersed and left me alone in my room. Mahiro remained and looked at me hard and solemn.
"Anko, why couldn't you just stay calm and do what you're told?" she asked me. I didn't answer. She would never understand my motives.
"Listen, I'm a ninja, not a maid. I will always be a ninja, but I will never be a maid," I said. I stood up and walked to the dining table to finally finish setting the table and be able to sleep and if possible, escape.
When I got to the dining table, Orochimaru was standing at the head of the table waiting for his setting. I shot a glare at him and set the rest of the table. I turned to go back to my room and sleep.
"Where do you think you're going, my dear?" I heard.
"Somewhere where you won't be in my presence," I replied. He grabbed the back of my dress.
"Oh no. You're eating here with me and a few of my close…acquaintances let's say," he hissed. I turned around and spat in his eye and smirked.
"Fine. It's your funeral. I'll kill you all," I said firmly and coldly. Orochimaru had a somewhat surprised expression on his face, but it didn't last long. It soon turned into a cruel smile that I hoped I wouldn't see again.
"It won't be my funeral," his long tongue licked the side of my face and then retreated back to its owner. I ignored it and sat down. Orochimaru sat at the head of the table. Not long after that, a crowd of other sound ninjas poured into the room.
"Well, well, well…what do we have here? An elite jônin from the Konoha village!"
"Just goes to show how pathetic Konoha is."
"We're going to have some fun tonight…"
"She been demoted to a maid! Hahahahaha!"
I growled under my breath and began forming hand symbols under the table.
"Now, now everyone. Let's all be nice. Anko, stop making symbols under the table. We're going to have a meal together," Orochimaru smiled in a freaky way. "Anko, let me introduce you to a few of my protégés."
"This is Zaku." Orochimaru pointed to a guy with spiky hair and something like a head brace. Zaku smirked.
"This is Dosu." Orochimaru gestured towards a person wrapped in bandages that really resembled a mummy.
"This is Kin." He gestured towards a woman with very long hair tied back. I wasn't exactly pleased to meet any of them.
"Lord Orochimaru, I'm sorry I'm late," a man with glasses stepped into the room. I gasped.
"Kabuto! What are you doing here?" I asked. Betrayal flashed in my head. It couldn't be true.
"I serve Lord Orochimaru now," Kabuto said sternly. Orochimaru sneered at me.
"Are you surprised, Anko?" I was too shocked to reply. The maid saved me and brought the meal to the table. Orochimaru finished introducing me to the other ninjas and then we ate. I didn't speak at all, although the male ninja were constantly flirting with me. This only provoked me to kill them. I shoveled rice into my mouth and gobbled down my ramen. The ramen reminded me of Naruto. I bet he would've loved to be eating my ramen right now. I slurped down my tea and gulped it all down. I stood up and smiled. Orochimaru continued eating. He didn't seem to notice at all.
"Orochimaru, I'm going to keep my word. I told you this would be your funeral," I smiled and began making my way through his minions. I splashed hot ramen in eyes, crashed the teapot over another's head, kicked another in the groin, and bashed Kin's head with the flower vase. I slowly made my way through the ninja until I was left with Kabuto.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Anko," Kabuto pushed his glasses up.
"You just need to get out of my way!" I spat, punching a male ninja that was coming up behind me. I was already in the fighting spirit. I charged and took Kabuto's back. I grabbed him and threw him into a group of charging ninja, knocking them over. To stall him, I threw a chair at him and turned to Orochimaru. He was calmly sipping tea.
"What a show! Bravo!" he clapped. "It's so sad that your show ends now." He got up and walked over to me. I felt a burning sensation rush through me. Anger overwhelmed me.
"Hey Dosu! That's just like what that Sasuke kid did!" Zaku shouted.
"I'll kill you Orochimaru!" I yelled. I rushed towards him, feeling wind on my face. I swiped a kunai at him. He took a step back and nimbly dodged all of my blows. I swung at him again and he caught my wrist. I twisted and pushed off his chest with my foot. I skidded to a halt and made a few more hand symbols. I rushed at him again and jumped over him this time and took his back. I punched. I felt my fist come in contact with his body. Whoosh. It went straight through him.
"Anko, I'm terribly ashamed to say that you missed." I whirled around to see him standing behind me. "That was a doppel-ganger." I screamed as his tongue wrapped around my arm and dragged me towards him.
"No! I won't lose! 'Striking Snake' Technique!" I grabbed his tongue and pulled the same move that I did when I had first found him.
"I must have taught you well," he said in a muffled and unclear voice, now that I was holding onto his tongue. I pulled him toward me and pulled out a kunai knife.
"Got you," I said. Whoosh. He was gone again.
"No, I've got you," Orochimaru said. He had formed another stupid doppel-ganger. He was too close. He swiped away the kunai knife from my hand and shoved me to the floor. I was about to get up, but he was on top of me. He kissed my lips ferociously. I gave a muffled scream and punched him hard in the face then shoved him off of me. He grinned as he got up.
"Do you feel better now that you've managed a hit on me?" he asked.
"Yes. It's something I've always wanted to do, 'Teacher'," I smirked.
"Good," he was only inches away from my face now. Before I could do anything, he gave me a hard slap. I stumbled backwards and my hand flew to my cheek just as his had. The next minute, I was pinned to the ground.
"Everyone, come here," he called his minions over to him. All the ninja swarmed around him and jeered at me. I snarled and tried to shake Orochimaru off.
"Fiesty, aren't we? Clam down Anko. For goodness sake!" He pulled my arms back harder and pushed down on my back with his foot harder. I cried out in pain. The ninja laughed at me. Meanwhile, the maids came rushing in to see what the commotion was. I heard their gasps and shrieks.
"Anko! Why did you have to go flying off the handle again?" I heard Mahiro ask angrily.
"Have fun," Orochimaru said to his minions, then he licked my face and tossed me into the crowd of ninja.
A/N: Whew! That was actually a lot of fun to write! I hope you all enjoyed it! Please review!